 
What a great performance by Asterix and his friends when it comes to Olympics medals! This summer saw one release after another relating to Asterix at the Olympic Games as the original publication celebrated its 40th anniversary in style.Firstly, fans will appreciate its first publication in The Asterix Grand Collection, with a new cover drawn by Albert Uderzo in 2008 featuring Julius Caesar looking a little grumpy due to Asterix's great success. Film fans, for their part, can relive the film Asterix at the Olympic Games thanks to the DVD which came out in late August in a collector's edition, chock full of bonuses and other behind-the-scenes extras. 
Olympian achievements like these are a good opportunity for Tapidesourix to present the new pages on www.asterix.com dedicated to Asterix translations in Greek, Cretan Greek, Pontic Greek and Cypriot Greek. What better than to discover this album in the local dialects as we accompany our heroes from the Village throughout ancient Greece?! Here's proof that the (huge number!) of Diabetes's cousins still have vivid memories of this visit, more than two thousand years later… |
Tuesday 28 October 2008
Edition - The Translation Exchange
Monday 20 October 2008
While stock exchanges throughout the Roman Empire have been going through some difficult times recently and Julius Caesar, advised by his loyal economics expert Caius Preposterus, has been striving to solve the crisis, one exchange still boasts strong growth, and its rude health is clear for all to see: the Asterix Translation Exchange!The Translation Exchange, a true pantheon of international Asterix album translations, has seen its stock rise by several hundreds of titles over the summer. Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese and Galician translations, recent albums as well as old classics: the Gaulish virtual Babel continues to expand and has already shot past the thousand album mark. Obelix can't believe his eyes! |
Thursday 16 October 2008
The 107th language for Asterix
Edition - The official asterix.com website - The Translation Exchange
Among the hundreds of additions to the Asterix Translation Exchange, one publication has particularly caught the eye: Astérix la kaz Razade (Asterix and the Magic Carpet), the very first release of an Asterix album in Réunion Creole.Réunion Creole, now officially declared the 107th language spoken by the most famous of all Gauls, follows hot on the heels of the translation of Asterix and the Great Divide into Antillean Creole, which has since become a smash bestseller on those islands and overseas.  Such an event really deserved a special album introduction page on which you will find all the secrets to the success of the Asterix album translations: a brand new map revealing the island of Réunion under the famous Asterix magnifying glass, a recap of all the most famous expressions from the Asterix world which are now part of our daily speech ("These Romans are crazy", "the sky falling on our heads", etc.), as well as a Creole/French glossary of more than 300 words for both educational purposes and for fun. Asterix albums never fail to surprise and delight! |
Wednesday 14 May 2008
Edition - The Translation Exchange
 "50 lanné avan Jézikri. Tout péyi Lagol anbajouk sé Romen-an." That's right: the year is 50 B.C. and everyone in "Lagol" is speaking Creole! The "Gaulish ancestors" of French Caribbean Islands can't get over it: the album Asterix and the Great Divide has become Gran Kannal La and sees our heroes speaking not only in Guadeloupe and Martinique Creole, but also in Creole as spoken in Haiti, French Guiana, and the Îles des Saintes.Published by Caraïbéditions, Gran Kannal La uses the same formula that worked so well in the translation of the same Asterix album into Picard, with different Creole dialects being attributed to different groups of characters: the right side of the village in Asterix and the Great Divide speaks in Guadeloupe Creole whereas the left side uses Martinique Creole. The speech bubbles are also jam-packed with other Creole dialects making their own appearance. See our special Asterix in Creole page for a more detailed explanation. 
Creole is the 105th language spoken by Asterix, and all the legions of Asterix fans are invited to a "rasanbleuman" (or "rally") to support it! With a special map of the Caribbean which sees the famous magnifying glass focussing on the islands of "Gwadloup" and "Matnik", and a Creole / French glossary of more than 400 words, all the usual extras you expect from an Asterix translation are provided. And as you turn the pages, it's enough to remind you of a holiday in the sun, while also providing an enjoyable introduction to the Creole language! |
Friday 25 April 2008
The Asterix Translation Exchange
With Asterix, every day is another book fest! Now translated into 104 different languages and dialects, the most famous of all Gauls sees new publications added every day to his collection from all four corners of the Known World. It's high time therefore for an update on the latest releases…    Our German cousins' printing presses have been particularly busy where, in addition to the release of a number of spin-off publications from the Asterix at the Olympic Games film, successive albums from The Asterix Grand Collection have been put on sale in local shops. In the last few months, no fewer than four new titles have appeared: Asterix and the Banquet, Asterix and Cleopatra, Asterix and Son and Asterix and the Magic Carpet. Our Goth friends have even given a remarkable welcome to Oumpah-Pah the Redskin, Goscinny and Uderzo's first creation, with the recent publication of the complete series in a superb single volume.  
In the absence of The Grand Collection, English-speaking readers can now enjoy new high-quality omnibus editions. Omnibus, you say? The cousin of Manlius Claphamomnibus from Asterix and the Secret Weapon? No! An omnibus is actually an album containing no fewer than three complete adventures. Two volumes are already available, the first of which contains the first three Asterix albums, whilst the second one features the last three.Finally, in Brazil, the tribute album to Albert Uderzo, Asterix and Friends, has just been translated, whilst Turkish readers have finally been able to discover the Asterix and the Class Act album. Let it not be said that Asterix doesn't travel the world over! |
Wednesday 2 April 2008
The official asterix.com website - Cinema - Edition - The Translation Exchange
 A titanic struggle is underway between the Gauls and the Ch'tis, if the French media are to be believed when quoting box office figures for the films Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis and Asterix at the Olympic Games. They seem to be forgetting the affectionate ties formed in recent years between the Gaulish folk and the peoples of Northern France, thanks to the publication of two albums in Picard Astérix i rinte à l'école (Asterix and the Class Act) and Ch'village copè in II (Asterix and the Great Divide). This might even explain the recent, large increase in visits to our blog Astérix en Picard. You'd think that Asterix had fallen in the Ch'ti cauldron! Ichi, in s'edvise in picard! Such is the motto of the Gauls and Romans transported to "Bedsum" in Asterix i rinte à l'école, a surprise bestseller of the year 2004 A.D., with more than 150,000 copies sold. Much sought after, the translations of Asterix albums in the land of the Ch'tis are like a fine swig of Picard magic potion! By using several alternate forms of Picard, and attributing each local variant to a short story (in Asterix and the Class Act) or a group of characters (in Asterix and the Great Divide), the two albums form an incredible collection of beautifully referenced jokes. The Roman centurion Umbrageous becomes Viendonboirénegoutedjus, in tribute to the song by Edmond Tanière, Eune goutte ed jus, whilst Histrionix and Melodrama, the two lovers in The Great Divide, are renamed Fonsix and Zulmine, in homage to Alphonse and Zulma, the heroes created by poet Léopold Simons, a famous Picard author. And for all adoptive Ch'tis, in other words practically all of Gaul since the beginning of 2008, a glossary in each album allows the uninitiated to sample the true pleasure of an Asterix translation in Picard. The only thing missing was a map of Gaulish-held Northern France unveiled by the famous magnifying glass at the beginning of all Asterix albums… But yes, we've thought of that too, and you can discover it here on our special Asterix in Picard page! Good news always comes in pairs, and as such we have decided to concoct a special page for each of the languages into which the Asterix albums are translated. After Picard, take a look at Asterix in Latin and Asterix in Hebrew. So now we're only… 101 languages away from completing the Asterix translation set! Tapidesourix has got some work to do! All the more so if the rumour about a forthcoming 105th language is true… Stay tuned to future Missives!
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